Rafael Nadal makes his long-awaited return to hardcourts on Saturday at the Indian Wells Masters 1000. The Spaniard who missed seven months of playing time to recover from a left knee injury, is back on cement for the first time in almost a year against hot-headed American Ryan Harrison tomorrow night.

“I feel very good. I’ve practised two times here,” Nadal said on Thursday. “But seriously, I understand my situation after seven months. I think it’s not the right moment to talk about the knee. I am here to try my best and that’s what I’m going to try. We’ll see how the knee responds on hard. The results on clay were positive, especially because the knee was feeling better and better every week, especially last week. Now I’m going to try here.”

After weeks of speculation as to his participation, Rafa confirmed his return to the desert over the weekend after crushing countryman David Ferrer to win Acapulco. And Nadal has fared well at Indian Wells reaching the semifinals or better the last seven years including titles in 2007 and 2009.

Rival Roger Federer knows a thing or four about winning at Indian Wells. The Swiss has four crowns and he enters as the defending champion. But Federer hasn’t won a title of any kind since Cincinnati last summer.

Federer will meet Denis Istomin in his opener.

Also on Saturday, John Isner meets former No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt, David Ferrer faces Kevin Anderson, Bernard Tomic takes on Richard Gasquet and Tomas Berdych and Gilles Simon are also in action in second round play.

For the women, the new wave of American teens are all in second round play: Sloane Stephens (v. U Radwanska), Madison Keys (v. Sam Stosur) and Taylor Townsend (v. Ana Ivanovic).

The last two women’s champions, Victoria Azarenka and Caroline Wozniacki, are also scheduled.

Earlier today, it was a mixed afternoon for Americans. Steve Johnson and Christina McHale both blew set leads to lose on Stadium 1. Jack Sock had a matchpoint in his 3-set loss to Ivo Karlovic while former finalist James Blake was an impressive winner. Qualifier Mallory Burdette of Stanford also got through.

2006 champion Maria Sharapova paced the top women in the third round. Joining the Russian in the win column were Aga Radwanska, Sara Errani, Marion Bartoli and Petra Kvitova who needed three sets to turn away Olga Govortsova.

The tournament’s billionaire owner Larry Ellison also announced an expansion in a groundbreaking event attended by Federer, Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Azarenka.

Connors, an eight-time Grand Slam winner who amassed 109 career titles during his career, doesn’t deny his affinity for Rafa’s all-in mindset on the court. “It’s just all about his health now,” he said. “He puts a lot of strain on his body the way he plays, and the effort that he gives… I like that, he’s my kind of kid because of that,….

Yes, it’s easier do than to put a smiley. Then, I like a kind of “serious”, dry humour with a bit of provocation, but I use it only with posters I know. But I confuse even them sometimes, not to mention the new posters, so I started to write two dots ..

When I am serious, I try to articulate my opinion more clearly, with arguments. It is not always easy, and sometimes I am plainly wrong, I admit.

So, when you see a short post, usually it is a (bad) joke. Long ones… just skip them..

Janowicz is one of the hottest prospects on the ATP and yet he still does not have a kit sponsor, how is this even possible? I mean, there are plenty of also-rans on the tour with sponsorships, why not Jerzy?

Ferrer is just not “on” so far in 2013 after a great 2012. Maybe he’s just played too much? He got blitz by Nole in the AbuDabi exho, and then again at AO where he should’ve lost to Nico, really, and then he lost badly to Rafa in Acapulco, and now he loses first match to Anderson. Maybe he should take a wee break? He’s 31 now isn’t he? It must be difficult to keep his schedule. I think he played 3 events pre-AO?

Really thought Hewitt should’ve had that first set over Isner. Looks like it’s going three if Leyton can hold here.

Nadalista, do you remember when Davydenko was ranked 4 in the world and was consistently making the QFs and SFs at majors, and even winning several Masters titles, and still had no clothing sponsor? Yeah, it’s crazy how that happens. I think part of it is because of the amount of money sponsors invest in the top guys. There are probably a ton of players who have no sponsor but only look like they do because they buy the clothes.

Whenever I watch Connors, it reminds me why I am a fan of Djokovic: Novak looks just like the enhanced, modern version of Jimbo. There are differences, of course, but the overall shape of their game is similar: big return, big BH, that ability to move the ball around and make the opponent run, the will to go forward.

In 1988, Jimmy was 36 but, in my opinion, played the best tennis of his life. He finally managed to switch racquet, he improved immediately his FH, his volley and his defensive game.

Benneteau won’t be around to trouble Fed again by the looks of it; Dodig has the better of him thus far. I think Benneteau likes a faster court, hence he did well in Dubai and he usually plays quite well at Wimbledon and in Paris.

Too bad for Juan. According to my mom, injuries pertaining to wrists and shoulders never heal completely due to over-use. Juan has been playing a lot of tennis of late, which most probably accounts for this flare-up.

I only hope these repeated flare-ups will not cause him to retire sooner than he’d want to happen. He’s my second fave.

Such a pleasure to see Rafa back. Novak might have the best FH, but the swing of Rafa on the FH side is such a pleasure to watch. Though he is making more mistakes from that side and the depth is not upto his usual level, he can only improve as he plays more matches. It should be a great contest between him and Berdych in the semis, if Berdych gets through his quarter.

@skeezer, be serious. Tipsy has been a train-wreck for a long time now. Yours is the only review I am reading which is giving Tipsy any credit. In fact, I suspect Tipsy is playing injured, why he would do that beats me…….

Aye, there’s the rub – Harrison had a plan to come in and not try to trade blows with Rafa, but alas his volleying was subpar tonight and his serve was nowhere near consistent. Meanwhile when Rafa did come in, he played well. But he was also good – overall – from the back of the court. Neither guy served his best, and I don’t think Rafa returned as well as I’ve seen him.

Congrats to rafa on the win! First match on HC after 346 days- were folks really expecting a masterclass from him today? LOL: folks with high expectations need to get real! It’s his first match back on HC- scrappy play mixed with moments of genuine quality were to be expected. On to the next one now!

@jane, from what I’ve seen of Rafa’s play in South America and his match against Harrison, we can forget about Rafa chasing every ball now. I think we should expect to see more aggressive play from Rafa rather than defensive play. The higher UEs, more forays into the net, going for winners more and the return of his DTL, especially backhand, attest to that.

Disturbing for me was Harrison’s showing, didn’t justify the hype. Without a good serving day he has nothing. If this the great hope of American men’s tennis, I shudder. Worrying indeed.

Tignor’s take of the Rafa-Harrison match. I agree with his take on Rafa’s game and play, I disagree with him on Harrison’s. There is no way one can describe Harrison’s serve and volley tactic as effective, it was a disaster. The moments Harrison appeared effective was in the mid to end part of the first set when Rafa was going through a mini “crisis” of his own.

Makes sense nadalista, what you say about the more aggressive play. Especially given that he doesn’t want to get re-injured. Also the double faults could be because he was “going for it” more on his second serves than he might normally. Again, trying to end the point more quickly rather than rolling it in, so to speak.. Mind you the wind could’ve been a factor too.

I thought gulbis played superb tennis. In fact,his level of play has been great this season.(he claims to have refocused,and his only 2 losses were close ones against berdych or del potro) The way gulbis was playing, I don’t think it would have mattered how well tipsarevic was playing.

“I am saying that today about the hard courts, because if I had to answer that question in 2005, 2006, maybe I will not answer that question, because seems like I am just having this opinion because I prefer to play on clay because I am much better on clay than hard. But today, after winning a lot of tournaments on hard and having a fantastic career, if we pull out all my clay court titles and just analyze my career outside of clay, I had, much better career that I ever dreamed. Because I was able to play very well on hard for a long time. I win a lot of important tournaments on hard, and that’s give me the confidence to say that to you.”

I thought Nadal was good and bad—he clearly mistimed some sitter put-away forehands. He also made some amazing shots particular to his style of game with his racket head acceleration. So there was good and bad. Although Djokovic, Murray and Federer likely would have wiped the court with him last night, it was a nice first match back on HC. I would love to see him play Gulbis in the 4th round with the way Gulbis has been playing. May be very exciting and dramatic.

^^^ Stop posting stale news. We know all about the rule. What we don’t know is who put it in place. Even though iinitially it was said the players voted for it, it has now been revealed that they did not.
That is the point skeezer.
Not whining just showing up the ATP for their lies (?)!!

I didnt see the match,but going by what everybodys saying,it will do for starters,although obviously theres bound to be room for improvement,nice to hear that Rafas been more agressive,and also going to the net more,and finishing points of quicker,and not seeing so many long rallies,and going DTL more,sounds like a good strategy anyway,good going Rafa,all a work in progress.

Well, if it’s only a few slow players who are complaining and the majority of the players voted for it, why is the issue on the agenda of the Miami meeting? Are you telling me these few slow players have this much power?

Nadalista thanks for that too,unfortunatly im not one,and i havent got one either,but i suppose its still regarded as ladies day anyway,which is what we say to the old girls in the care home where i work.

Thanks for correcting my wrong assumption @alison. I am quite sure there is nothing unfortunate about you not being a Mum, I know you are blessed in a whole lot of ways, one of which is being a good person and having the good sense to be a Rafan!

Sorry alison, I was freaking out only because that would’ve meant I forgot to get my Mom something and hadn’t even called her yet. I am in the US and I didn’t realize that it was different in other countries. Happy Mother’s Day to all!

Friggin hilarious stuff here. Fed being called a liar, etc twisting the point. Rafa has been the biggest abuser of the time violation rule, period. Something needed to be done and the ATP finally took action.

Skeezer, do you know the difference between the ATP Players Council, ATP Board of Directors and the ATP Competition Committee and who is on these various things and how the voting works? Even fed doesn’t believe in shot clocks on the court, as was suggested on here that should be used.

Technically Giles, it was not a lie. The ATP BOD voted and reps from the Players Council are present along with other members of various tennis related stuff.

I hesitate to believe blindly, anything posted on a blog since it can be twisted, as we all know. Leave out a sentence or paragraph or word and sometimes the context in which something was said is lost. I will however believe more an article from Reuters or AP or on the ATP official site, etc.

Giles,
“NEW YORK — At its recent meetings in New York, the ATP Board of Directors approved a rule change and a trial for the 2013 season, both proposed by the new ATP Competition Committee.”

“The new rule was endorsed by the ATP player’s council last month but stricter enforcement at warm-up tournaments ahead of next week’s Australian Open has raised concerns from players about a crackdown at the year’s first grand slam where five-set matches in extreme heat often feature.”

Technically, the players council votes on an issue, hopefully listening to the majority of the thousands of players, and they present “their” side at the ATP BOD meetings. They did not propose the time violation change to the BOD, the Competition Committee did. The players council has 2 people represent them at the BOD meetings, in which they can voice their approval or not.

I cannot find info on what the actual numbers were for any of the votes on this subject, but for it to be presented as for it by the Players Council, it had to have been a majority, even if that majority was, since I don’t know actual numbers offhand of number of players, I am just using as an example… a vote of 51-49. Not overwhelming for sure, but a majority nonetheless.

Giles: rather disappointed that you choose to refer to any ‘article’ by Chris Chase.
Oh and who are the Federer stooges?
Am I mistaken in thinking that Tennisx is turning into Tennistalk? Know what I mean?